Ruth has regularly served as both a lead facilitation and project manager responsible for project team management and staff supervision; meeting design and collaborative agenda development; document and meeting notes production; and project contracting, timeline, and budget. Many of her projects have spanned multiple years, involved agencies and stakeholders from multiple states, and represented facilitation team and administrative support budgets of $200,000-$650,000. My projects range from facilitation of a single group, to facilitation of an interagency management group and an associated advisory committee, to facilitation and administrative support of a 31-seat board with six standing sub-committees. Group sizes can vary from 12 to over 75 persons per meeting. In each my projects, the groups succeeded in reaching consensus on decisions regarding the key issues of concern from the sponsoring organizations.

Nicholson Facilitation & Associates, LLC’s work with federal, state, county, municipal, and tribal governments includes facilitation in the areas of land and resource management, endangered species conservation, nuclear and hazardous waste cleanup, military base closure and reuse, county mineral lands planning, and rural wastewater services. Associates and subcontractors in the areas of facilitation, public involvement, and technical writing are engaged as needed by project size, complexity, and location.

The firm has also provided mediation services in the area of land use and risk assessment, including mediation between federal government agencies and tribal governments. Nicholson Facilitation & Associates, LLC, projects often involve work with diverse stakeholders, including landowners; rural, natural resource-dependent communities; conservation and environmental concerns; user groups and recreationists; tribal governments; and a variety of local, state and federal agencies.

In addition to offering facilitation services, I have provided facilitation training in North America, as a one-on-one facilitation coach/trainer, and at international conferences in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, and North America. I have also served as an international assessor evaluating candidates for professional facilitator certification in Africa, North America, and Asia.

Ruth Nicholson is the co-author of When There Are No Easy Answers...A Facilitators Guide to Designing Complex Events, which is based on input from over 100 facilitators around the world and the article Post-Agreement Conflict: A Reflection on the Causes and the Development of Skills to Address It. Her facilitation course, Make Meetings Meaningful: Practical Facilitation, was the only North American facilitation course endorsed by the International Association for Public Participation as a part of its Tier II Professional Development Series in 2006.

Ruth E. Nicholson, Manager of Nicholson Facilitation & Associates, LLC, is an International Association of Facilitators (IAF) Certified Professional Facilitator (CPF), visual and graphic facilitator, Certified Assessor, and trained mediator in private practice in Snohomish County, Washington. She is also a member of the US Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution (USIECR) roster. I hold a master’s degree in public administration and offer over 20 years’ experience in organizational development, facilitation, conflict resolution, public policy, and non-profit organization management.